Exploring Canada: Writing on Canadian History and Society in Finland

Auvo Kostiainen

Canada, with approximately the same kind of natural conditions as Finland,
has attracted tens of thousands of Finns as migrants during the last one hundred
years. Canada, as a country of multi-ethnic composition, has, on the whole
evolved quite a positive sentiment in Finland. But what do the Finns really know
about the Canadian past and history, except that the land has been favoured by
many Finnish migrants?

Despite the modest body of historical knowledge of Canada, on the country
have been produced quite a few interesting works in Finland. Here, an analysis
will be made about the trends of historical writing on Canada in Finland. What
kind of books have appeared, what is the share of historical research, and what
is the future of Canadian history studies in Finland?

The presentation which follows includes a number of descriptions on Canada as
well as historical studies which have been written in the past years and
decades. In trying to figure the present situation, I have mainly used
information about various departments of history. I do not claim that the
information which has been available to me includes everything, but at least the
endeavour is supposed to give quite a reliable picture of research on Canadian
history in Finland.

The Legacy of Pehr Kalm

The tradition of scholarly research on Canada by the Finns may be traced back
to the middle of the eighteenth century. At that time, a scholar in the field
natural economy, Pehr Kalm from the old Academy of Turku, made a trip to North America.
Kalm's trip lasted for a longish period during the years 1747-1751. He was sent
there by the Swedish Academy. His major interests reflected the European
scholarly ideas of the time, but there were also some special Finnish and
Swedish historical facts in the background. In the 1630's the Swedish kingdom -
with Finland as an important part of the country at that time - had established
a colony in the Delaware river area. Sweden was endeavouring, like the European
great powers such as England and France, to compete in the mercantilist spirit
for a share in the world's economic resources. Several hundreds of Swedes and
Finns moved to the small colony. Its future, however, wasn't anything glorious,
and after a few shiploads of people over two decades, no really new Swedish or
Finnish blood was added to the colony or the North American continent, until
nineteenth century.

Kalm was most interested in many aspects of the New World: he was attracted
by its geographical and botanical features as well as by the people and general
living conditions. His most famous act in European eyes, however, was his visit
to the Niagara Falls area. His was the first European scholarly
description of the Falls, the most famous natural attraction of the Northern
American continent. Again, his description of the eastern parts of the North
American continent attracted a large readership. Kahn's book was published in
the Swedish language, but soon translated into several European languages.1
Undoubtedly, Kalm's work has had a great impact on maintaining and increasing
the Finnish (and Swedish) interest in North America, and in our case also in
Canada. Subsequently, the natural scientists of the nineteenth century became
interested in Canadian areas.

A special interest in North America later arose because of the ownership of
Alaska by the Russian Empire, with which Finland was attached from 1809 until
the year 1917. Certain Finnish priests and government officials worked in Alaska
during the Russian period, and they also had a scholarly interest in the
Northern regions, both Alaska and the neighbouring Canadian areas.

Travel Descriptions and Memoirs

The United States was the main target of Finnish emigrants in the late
nineteenth century and early 1900's, but Canada, too, became at the turn of the
last century an important destination for Finnish migrants. At that time,
however, only a few thousand Finns lived in the Canadian areas. In the United
States, the number of foreign-born Finns in 1920 was around 150,000, while in Canada
the census reported in 1911 15,400 Finns. In 1931, their number had risen to
43,000 and a new wave of migration increased the numbers after World War Two. At
present the number of Finns in Canada is about 100,000. The overwhelming
concentration of population has occurred in Ontario, which in 1931 had already
27,000 Finns and British Columbia with 6,800 Finns in 1931. The shift in the
migration wave from Finland to Canada instead of the United States was
intensified by the immigration restrictions which were started during the
interwar years and today still exist.2

The geographical location of Canada and the United States has given a rise to
migratory movements between the countries, and it was also quite common for
migrants to arrive first at Canadian ports and cities, and after some time to
travel on to the United States. This close relationship is also seen in the
organizational connections of the migrant communities, which is referred to
later in this paper. But at first this "closeness" was reflected in a
number of travel descriptions on Canada published in Finland. In spite of the
fact that Canada and the United States were politically separate from the late
eighteenth century, the Finns who travelled to North America often combined
their trips to both countries.

As mentioned previously, even the earliest Finnish travel description of Pehr
Kalm, written before the emergence of the United States, also took in Canada. By
the end of the nineteenth century, a few books had come out in Finland about
North America. Perhaps the best known volume was Akseli Järnefelt's Amerikan
kirja (Book on America), which didn't touch very much upon the Canadian
areas but concentrated on the Finnish settlements in the United States. However,
there were some remarks on Canada in about ten pages. Järnefelt describes the
places of his visit, travelling on the Canadian Pacific's trans-Canada railway
towards the East. Especially he stayed in Nanaimo, British Columbia, in New
Finland, a farming village in the midst of the prairies of Manitoba, and
thereafter in Port Arthur and Sudbury and Copper Cliff, Ontario, which were the
main Finnish centers at that time. Järnefelt crossed the
border to the United States in Sault Ste Marie. The general view of Järnefelt
was quite positive, although he presented certain moral comments on the earlier
"wild" life of the Finnish population. But in most cases he liked what
he saw. Most of all Canada's natural resources were interesting to him. Also,
Canada's liberal immigration policies were seen as positive. Järnefelt even
noted the many-sided contacts between the Finns in the United States and Canada.3

In Finland, interest was aroused by the Socialist experiments of the Finns in
British Columbia, on Malcolm Island. In the early years of the twentieth
century, a Utopian experiment was carried on there. Its most visible and even
controversial leader was the Finnish Socialist leader, Matti Kurikka. He had
gone to Australia to help with the utopian-minded Finnish experiments there, but
was invited to Malcolm Island to be a leader in the Sointula (Harmony)
experiment in 1901. Officially, the experiment occurred under the name of the
Kalevan Kansa Colonization Company (the People of Kaleva Colonization Co.). In
Sointula, the first Finnish newspaper in Canada, called Aika (Time), was
published in 1901.

As discussed later, this utopian experiment has been a topic
of many books. In Finland, a couple of historical-travel-memoir books on the
Sointula colony were published. The earliest of these books was published in
1907, only a couple of years after the big fire, quarrels and collapse of the
colony. The author was a well-known Socialist newspaperman from Finland, A.B.
Mäkelä. He was one of the pioneers in developing the idea of a Finnish
Utopian-Socialist experiment in the Canadian West. Mäkelä published the book
in Finland under the literary pseudonym he frequently used, Kaapro
Jääskeläinen.4 The book itself gives a vivid and
interesting picture of the colony, Kurikka and other leaders, as well as the
living conditions on the Pacific West Coast of Canada. Actually, it may be that
Canadian natural conditions constituted a prime reason for the failure, although
reference has been made to ideological and leadership problems as well as to the
family problems - that is, the "collective ownership" of women. But
the colony had to live on fishing and forestry, and perhaps the colonists had
insufficient skills for the pursuits as well as for collective economic
activities.

In the group of travelogues and memoirs may be included some
other interesting books. Another Sointula -participant, Matti Halminen,
published his memoirs and descriptions on the Sointula-experiment in 1936.
Halminen was one of the founding members of the colony, and describes very
vividly the years of the experiment as well as its aftermath. Even Halminen pays
a lot of attention to the natural surroundings in addition to the ideological
quarrels.5

Certain well-known writers from Finland travelled to Canada
in the early decades of the twentieth century. A book by "the globe
trotter", writer and photographer Sakari Pälsi came out in 1927. The book
had an- interesting title Suuri, kaunis ja ruma maa - in English
"The Great, Beautiful and Ugly Country".6
Pälsi travelled as an "investigative tourist", who wasn't perhaps so
much interested in the Finns in Canada, but more in the Canadian natural scene,
the cities and means of travel. The expression "ugly" may primarily be
understood as a reference to the traces of the Western civilization in the
nature: spoiled sceneries, "world's largest" dumping places and other
reflections of the industrialized West.

The Rise of Scholarly Studies

Among the most notable examples of Finnish writing about the history of
Canada is Arja Pilli's 1982 dissertation on the Finnish-Canadian ethnic press
between the years 1901-1939. In that study, Arja Pilli concentrated on the
historical development of six Finnish-language newspapers. The circulation of
the papers reached at the most 4,000 per paper. In addition, several short lived
periodicals were published with a modest circulation. In most cases, the
publishers were the same organizational printing houses which put out newspapers
like Vapaus, a left Socialist paper from Sudbury, Ontario. The Canadian
Finnish press was generally very politically oriented as was the case with the
Finnish press in the United States, too. Pilli's study deals
with the politically conservative press as well as with the
Left/Socialist/Communist -minded papers. The study reveals the importance of the
press as an inter-ethnic means of communication and its task in commenting and
giving information on both Canadian society and the old-country events. What is,
however, important to note is the strong political connections and radical
attitudes of the Left-wing press especially, and its critical understanding of
Canadian society and politics.7

Another interesting thesis was done at the University of
Joensuu by Eija Kettunen-Hujanen in 1995 about the life-cycle of the work places
of Finnish immigrants of the years 1918-1930 from Eastern Finland.8
Her purpose was to trace the personal life-cycles of about 400 immigrants: where
they lived, earned their living, and how this situation changed over the years.
That is why the author follows the change in work places of the individual
immigrants, who often had several jobs and moved their abodes, and even
occupations quite frequently.

Another interesting monograph by Reino Kero has dealt with
the large migration from the United States and Canada to Soviet Karelia during
the Great Depression. About 3,000 Canadian Finns as well as 3,000 Finns from the
United States crossed the Atlantic.9 Mostly they
became disappointed with their ideal land and perhaps half of them returned to
North America - and in most cases remained very silent about their experiences.
Few of them appear to have been active in the Leftist labour movement in North
America after their Soviet Karelian sojourn.

In addition to the above-mentioned works, quite a few MA
theses on mostly Finnish-Canadian migration history are to be found. Apart from
Arja Pilli's dissertation, close to ten MA theses at the University of Turku
have been written. To mention a few examples; there is first a thesis about
early Finnish migration to Canada by Miika Huhta. In his study, Huhta discussed
the reasons for the selection of Canada as a place to go. The most common early
settlements were often in the central parts of Ontario, in the mining and
lumbering areas. Later on, Finnish centers grew up in the great cities like
Toronto and Vancouver.10

Then, Varpu Luodesmeri made a study on the post-1918-Civil
War Finnish immigrant community. In this highly interesting study, what is
revealed is how the left-radical organizations in Canada especially tried to
investigate the persons arriving from Finland after the short
and bloody civil war of 1918. Who had been fighting on the Red and who on the
White side? The investigations resulted in the so-called comrades' courts, which
passed sentences on the newcomers to see whether they could be included in the
real workers' circles in Canada.11 In addition,
there is a study by Maire Salmela on the development of the Finnish press in
Canada in the 1950-1960's, when migration increased strongly to Canada.12

In the group of scholarly studies have to be included scholarly works dealing
with the history of Matti Kurikka and his Utopian experiment
in British Columbia in the early years of the twentieth century. Earlier,
reference has been made to a couple of more populartype books on Kurikka, those
of A.B. Mäkelä (under pseydonym Kaapro Jääskeläinen) and Matti Halminen,
who participated themselves in the founding stages. Relatives of Kurikka, Arno
and Osmo Linnoila did their MA theses on Kurikka in Helsinki in the 1930's and
1940's. Both wrote on Kurikka in general terms as well as, on his role as a
utopian-type Socialist in British Columbia.13
Additionally, it may be said that the special case of Sointula and the Kalevan
Kansa has attracted a lot of interest in Finland, and reference about it may be
found in practically all books and articles on Finnish migration history.
It may be argued, however, that the results of the colony were not very
specific; it was a failure, in short. The fame of the experiment lies mostly in
the fact that the Finns have not really been involved in many Utopian
experiments, and so this case serves as an important topic of its own kind. A
Finnish newspaperman, Kalevi Kalemaa even has published a biographical
non-scholarly book on Kurikka in the year 1978.14

Additionally, as a new kind of study of contemporary
history, may be noted Eero Valkonen's ph.licenciate thesis about the sports of
icehockey as an international competition and entertainment. Originally as a
Canadian sports, it has taken a leading position as a winter sports even in
Finland. Valkonen discusses the general conceptions of icehockey and its
reception as well as problems of the sports of the recent decades.15

The Shadow of the United States?

Even if we find quite a few studies on Canadian history, it is reasonable to
say that it is the interest in the United States history that has overwhelmingly
preoccupied Finnish historians of North America. The migration flow from Finland
to the US was much stronger than migration to Canada, and therefore the interest
of migration historians was also directed mainly to the US.

Canadian elements have, in many cases, quite an important
role in studies which deal mainly with the developments in the United States.
This is true of several studies done in Turku with the main focus on the United
States, for instance, that on the migration of the Finns to North America by
Reino Kero; that on the return migration by Keijo Virtanen; even Auvo
Kostiainen's dissertation on the beginnings of the radical Communist movement
among the Finnish Americans also deals with contacts over the
US-Canadian border.16 The three volume series of
the Department of History in Turku Suomen siirtolaisuuden historia (The
History of the Finnish Migration) touches on many aspects of migration history
by combining the US and Canadian experience.17

The same kind of discussion may be found in the recent studies done by Reino
Kero, who has compiled his monumental two volumes on Finnish Migration to North
America. In this case, North America also includes Canada. Particularly in the
second volume there is a lot of discussion on the Canadian Finns. Mainly this is
due to the above mentioned fact that since about 1920 the main body of migration
from Finland to North America has gone to Canada because of US migration
restrictions.

While the original generations of migrant Finns in the US have died or are
now very old, discussion has turned on the problems of the second and third
generation, the children of migrants. In contrast, in Canada, the main migrant
generation came later and so there still are active members of it. Therefore,
their social problems, activities, papers, societies, leisure pursuits, as well
as occupations have been a topic of intense study even in Canada.

The same question of the interaction between the North
American countries may be mentioned in connection with several additional
studies made in Finland, and dealing mainly with the US history or culture. Even
the general histories of the United States, by Reino Kero, Auvo Kostiainen and
Keijo Virtanen as well as that by Markku Henriksson discuss to some extent
Canadian history. The case is likewise with studies on the US Indian peoples.18

Future Prospects

One of the main problems which prevents or limits the study of Canadian
history in Finland is the problem of sources. We have quite good materials on
the history of migration to Canada as well as on the Finnish-Canadian community.
But other kind of sources are quite occasional: some documentary collections,
diplomatic sources, collections of certain newspapers and periodicals, as well
as travel descriptions.

From the information presented above may, major prevailing trends thus far
may be summarized. Migration history has dominated Finnish academic interest in
Canadian history. For the moment, it is difficult to find a serious challenge to
this sector. There are some possible new resources and more studies developing
in Finland for the study of Canadian history, since North American Studies
programs are continuing, for example, in the Universities of Tampere, Turku and
Helsinki.

What would be suitable fields for Canadian history with present day
resources? Firstly, the study of migration history has the longest tradition,
and there are some possibilities for research on the ethnic history of Canada. A
second field might be the Canadian history of multicultural policy as seen from
Finland. It is possible for fruitful topics of study to be found even in the
field of the history travel and tourism, which is nowadays advancing in, for
instance, the University of Turku. On the other hand, the rising interest in the
Arctic history in general could stimulate comparisons between the Canadian and
Scandinavian contexts.

Undoubtedly, Canadian themes will prove attractive in the Finnish public as
well as students. What are needed, however, are sources and materials. Unless
they are secured, it is quite difficult to promote interest in the history of
Canada. Maybe new electronic resources will be helpful in this sense.

1. See the English language versions,
e.g., Pehr Kalm, Peter Kalm's Travels in North America. The English
version of 1770. Reprint. New York 1987.

10. Miika Huhta, Siirtolaisuus
Suomesta Kanadaan ennen I maailmansotaa ja suomalaisten sijoittuminen Kanadaan. (Migration
from Finland to Canada before the First World War and the Settlements of the
Finns in Canada) MA thesis in general history, University of Turku 1982.

12. Maire Salmela, Etelä-Pohjanmaan
järviseudun siirtolaisuus Kanadaan ensimmäisen maailmansodan ja suuren
lamakauden välillä. (Migration to Canada from the South Ostrobothnian Lake
District in the Years between the World War One and the Great Depression) MA
thesis in general history, University of Turku 1987.

16. See, Reino Kero, Migration from
Finland to North America in the Years between the United States Civil War and
the First World War. - Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, Ser. B, Part 130.
Vammala 1974; Auvo Kostiainen, The Forging of Finnish-American Communism
1917-1924. A Study in Ethnic Radicalism. - Annales Universitatis Turkuensis
Ser. B, Part 147. Turku 1978; Keijo Virtanen, Settlement or Return. Finnish
Emigrants (1860-1930) in the International Overseas Return Migration Movement.
-. Studia Historica 10. Helsinki 1979.